Methods and systems for network-based analysis, intervention, and anonymization

ABSTRACT

Systems and method for alerting a user device based on a proposed anonymization of a contribution to a conversation thread via one or several location-based anonymization rules are disclosed herein. The system can include a user device that can have location-determining features that can determine a physical location of the user device; a network interface that can exchange data with a server via a communication network; and an I/O subsystem that can convert electrical signals to user-interpretable outputs in a user interface. The system can include a server that can: receive a contribution from the user device; determine an anonymization level for applying to the contribution; identify a potential identifier in the content of the contribution; anonymize the potential identifier according to the determined anonymization level; and generate and provide an alert to the user device.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 14/928,061 filed on Oct. 30, 2015 and entitled “METHODS ANDSYSTEMS FOR NETWORK-BASED ANALYSIS, INTERVENTION, AND ANONYMIZATION”,which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/072,932,filed Oct. 30, 2014 and entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF EDUCATIONALNETWORK-BASED ANALYSIS, INTERVENTION, AND ANONYMIZATION”, which areherein incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

This application relates to the field data transmission and networkoptimization.

A computer network or data network is a telecommunications network whichallows computers to exchange data. In computer networks, networkedcomputing devices exchange data with each other along network links(data connections). The connections between nodes are established usingeither cable media or wireless media. The best-known computer network isthe Internet.

Network computer devices that originate, route and terminate the dataare called network nodes. Nodes can include hosts such as personalcomputers, phones, servers as well as networking hardware. Two suchdevices can be said to be networked together when one device is able toexchange information with the other device, whether or not they have adirect connection to each other.

Computer networks differ in the transmission media used to carry theirsignals, the communications protocols to organize network traffic, thenetwork's size, topology and organizational intent. In most cases,communications protocols are layered on (i.e. work using) other morespecific or more general communications protocols, except for thephysical layer that directly deals with the transmission media.

As the volume of data exchanged between nodes in computer networks hasincreased, the speed of data transmission has become increasingly moreimportant. Although current technologies provide improved speeds ascompared to their predecessors, further developments are needed.

BRIEF SUMMARY

One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a system for alerting auser device based on a proposed anonymization of a contribution to aconversation thread via one or several location-based anonymizationrules. The system includes a user device including: locationdetermining-features that can determine a physical location of the userdevice; a network interface that can exchange data with a server via acommunication network; and an I/O subsystem that can convert electricalsignals to user-interpretable outputs in a user interface. The systemcan include a server that can: receive a contribution from the userdevice, which contribution includes content for placement in aconversation thread; and determine an anonymization level for applyingto the contribution. In some embodiments, determining the anonymizationlevel includes: receiving physical location information from the userdevice, which physical location information identifies the physicallocation of the user device; retrieving an anonymization table from acontent access database; and extracting level data from theanonymization table based on the physical location information of theuser device, which level data includes the anonymization level. Theserver can: identify a potential identifier in the content of thecontribution; anonymize the potential identifier according to thedetermined anonymization level; and generate and provide an alert to theuser device, which alert includes code to direct the user device toprovide an indicator of the received alert via the I/O subsystem.

In some embodiments, the indicator of the received alert includes: anaural indicator; a tactile indicator; and a visual indicator. In someembodiments, the contribution includes contribution data identifying theoriginator of the contribution. In some embodiments, the server candetermine an active location of the originator of the contribution,which active location is based on the physical location and a membershipof the user. In some embodiments, extracting level data from theanonymization table is based on the physical location information of theuser device and the active location of the user.

In some embodiments, the server can retrieve anonymization rulescorresponding to the anonymization level. In some embodiments, thelocation-determining features include a Global Positioning Systemreceiver and a Global Positioning System antenna. In some embodiments,the server can identify the potential identifier as an actual identifierwhen the potential identifier matches user data and when the potentialidentifier does not match group materials. In some embodiments, theserver can identify the potential identifier as not an actual identifierwhen the potential identifier does not match user data. In someembodiments, the server can identify the potential identifier as not anactual identifier when the potential identifier matches user data, whenthe potential identifier matches group materials, and when the potentialidentifier is associated with the group materials. In some embodiments,identifying the potential identifier as not an actual identifier whenthe potential identifier matches user data, when the potentialidentifier matches group materials, and when the potential identifier isassociated with the group materials includes: identifying a window sizefor evaluation, which window size specifies an amount of datasurrounding the potential identifier for analysis; identifying datawithin the window; analyzing the data within the window; and outputtingan indicator of association between the potential identifier and thegroup materials.

One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for alerting auser device based on a proposed anonymization of a contribution to aconversation thread via one or several location-based anonymizationrules. The method includes: receiving at a server a contribution from auser device via a communication network, which contribution includescontent for placement in a conversation thread; and determining with theserver an anonymization level for applying to the contribution. In someembodiments, determining the anonymization level includes: receivingphysical location information from the user device, which physicallocation information identifies a physical location of the user device;retrieving an anonymization table from a content access database; andextracting level data from the anonymization table based on the physicallocation information of the user device, which level data includes theanonymization level. In some embodiments, the method includesidentifying with the server a potential identifier in the content of thecontribution; anonymizing with the server the potential identifieraccording to the determined anonymization level; and generating andproviding an alert to the user device via the communication network. Insome embodiments, the alert includes code to direct the user device toprovide an indicator of the received alert via an I/O subsystemconfigured to convert electrical signals to user-interpretable outputsin a user interface.

In some embodiments, the indicator of the received alert includes: anaural indicator; a tactile indicator; and a visual indicator. In someembodiments, the contribution includes contribution data identifying theoriginator of the contribution. In some embodiments the method includesdetermining an active location of the originator of the contribution,which active location is based on the physical location and a membershipof the user. In some embodiments, extracting level data from theanonymization table is based on the physical location information of theuser device and the active location of the user.

In some embodiments, the method includes retrieving anonymization rulescorresponding to the anonymization level. In some embodiments, thelocation information is generated by location-determining features ofthe user device. In some embodiments, the location-determining featuresinclude a Global Positioning System receiver and a Global PositioningSystem antenna. In some embodiments, the method includes identifying thepotential identifier as an actual identifier when the potentialidentifier matches user data and when the potential identifier does notmatch group materials.

Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will becomeapparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It shouldbe understood that the detailed description and specific examples, whileindicating various embodiments, are intended for purposes ofillustration only and are not intended to necessarily limit the scope ofthe disclosure

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a contentdistribution network.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a computer server and computingenvironment within a content distribution network.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of one or more datastore servers within a content distribution network.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of one or morecontent management servers within a content distribution network.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the physical and logicalcomponents of a special-purpose computer device within a contentdistribution network.

FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of one embodiment of a conversationthread.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forevaluating one or several contributions in a conversation thread.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forgenerating a contributor effect score.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process foranonymizing contribution data based, in part, on location data receivedfrom location hardware.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forreceiving anonymization criteria.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forevaluating comment data.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forcomparing one or several comments to group data and group materials.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forresolving a problem based on thread and contributor information.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forreviving and/or stimulating a conversation thread and sending alerts toone or several user devices.

In the appended figures, similar components and/or features may have thesame reference label. Further, various components of the same type maybe distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a secondlabel that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the firstreference label is used in the specification, the description isapplicable to any one of the similar components having the same firstreference label irrespective of the second reference label.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides illustrative embodiment(s) only and isnot intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of thedisclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the illustrativeembodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enablingdescription for implementing a preferred exemplary embodiment. It isunderstood that various changes can be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope asset forth in the appended claims.

With reference now to FIG. 1, a block diagram is shown illustratingvarious components of a content distribution network (CDN) 100 whichimplements and supports certain embodiments and features describedherein. Content distribution network 100 may include one or more contentmanagement servers 102. As discussed below in more detail, contentmanagement servers 102 may be any desired type of server including, forexample, a rack server, a tower server, a miniature server, a bladeserver, a mini rack server, a mobile server, an ultra-dense server, asuper server, or the like, and may include various hardware components,for example, a motherboard, processing units, memory systems, harddrives, network interfaces, power supplies, etc. Content managementserver 102 may include one or more server farms, clusters, or any otherappropriate arrangement and/or combination or computer servers. Contentmanagement server 102 may act according to stored instructions locatedin a memory subsystem of the server 102, and may run an operatingsystem, including any commercially available server operating systemand/or any other operating systems discussed herein.

The content distribution network 100 may include one or more data storeservers 104, such as database servers and file-based storage systems.The database servers 104 can access data that can be stored on a varietyof hardware components. These hardware components can include, forexample, components forming tier 0 storage, components forming tier 1storage, components forming tier 2 storage, and/or any other tier ofstorage. In some embodiments, tier 0 storage refers to storage that isthe fastest tier of storage in the database server 104, andparticularly, the tier 0 storage is the fastest storage that is not RAMor cache memory. In some embodiments, the tier 0 memory can be embodiedin solid state memory such as, for example, a solid-state drive (SSD)and/or flash memory.

In some embodiments, the tier 1 storage refers to storage that is one orseveral higher performing systems in the memory management system, andthat is relatively slower than tier 0 memory, and relatively faster thanother tiers of memory. The tier 1 memory can be one or several harddisks that can be, for example, high-performance hard disks. These harddisks can be one or both of physically or communicatingly connected suchas, for example, by one or several fiber channels. In some embodiments,the one or several disks can be arranged into a disk storage system, andspecifically can be arranged into an enterprise class disk storagesystem. The disk storage system can include any desired level ofredundancy to protect data stored therein, and in one embodiment, thedisk storage system can be made with grid architecture that createsparallelism for uniform allocation of system resources and balanced datadistribution.

In some embodiments, the tier 2 storage refers to storage that includesone or several relatively lower performing systems in the memorymanagement system, as compared to the tier 1 and tier 2 storages. Thus,tier 2 memory is relatively slower than tier 1 and tier 0 memories. Tier2 memory can include one or several SATA-drives or one or severalNL-SATA drives.

In some embodiments, the one or several hardware and/or softwarecomponents of the database server 104 can be arranged into one orseveral storage area networks (SAN), which one or several storage areanetworks can be one or several dedicated networks that provide access todata storage, and particularly that provide access to consolidated,block level data storage. A SAN typically has its own network of storagedevices that are generally not accessible through the local area network(LAN) by other devices. The SAN allows access to these devices in amanner such that these devices appear to be locally attached to the userdevice.

Data stores 104 may comprise stored data relevant to the functions ofthe content distribution network 100. Illustrative examples of datastores 104 that may be maintained in certain embodiments of the contentdistribution network 100 are described below in reference to FIG. 3. Insome embodiments, multiple data stores may reside on a single server104, either using the same storage components of server 104 or usingdifferent physical storage components to assure data security andintegrity between data stores. In other embodiments, each data store mayhave a separate dedicated data store server 104.

Content distribution network 100 also may include one or more userdevices 106 and/or supervisor devices 110. User devices 106 andsupervisor devices 110 may display content received via the contentdistribution network 100, and may support various types of userinteractions with the content. User devices 106 and supervisor devices110 may include mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet computers,personal digital assistants, and wearable computing devices. Such mobiledevices may run a variety of mobile operating systems, and may beenabled for Internet, e-mail, short message service (SMS), Bluetooth®,mobile radio-frequency identification (M-RFID), and/or othercommunication protocols. Other user devices 106 and supervisor devices110 may be general purpose personal computers or special-purposecomputing devices including, by way of example, personal computers,laptop computers, workstation computers, projection devices, andinteractive room display systems. Additionally, user devices 106 andsupervisor devices 110 may be any other electronic devices, such as athin-client computers, an Internet-enabled gaming systems, business orhome appliances, and/or a personal messaging devices, capable ofcommunicating over network(s) 120.

In different contexts of content distribution networks 100, user devices106 and supervisor devices 110 may correspond to different types ofspecialized devices, for example, student devices and teacher devices inan educational network, employee devices and presentation devices in acompany network, different gaming devices in a gaming network, etc. Insome embodiments, user devices 106 and supervisor devices 110 mayoperate in the same physical location 107, such as a classroom orconference room. In such cases, the devices may contain components thatsupport direct communications with other nearby devices, such as awireless transceivers and wireless communications interfaces, Ethernetsockets or other Local Area Network (LAN) interfaces, etc. In otherimplementations, the user devices 106 and supervisor devices 110 neednot be used at the same location 107, but may be used in remotegeographic locations in which each user device 106 and supervisor device110 may use security features and/or specialized hardware (e.g.,hardware-accelerated SSL and HTTPS, WS-Security, firewalls, etc.) tocommunicate with the content management server 102 and/or other remotelylocated user devices 106. Additionally, different user devices 106 andsupervisor devices 110 may be assigned different designated roles, suchas presenter devices, teacher devices, administrator devices, or thelike, and in such cases the different devices may be provided withadditional hardware and/or software components to provide content andsupport user capabilities not available to the other devices.

The content distribution network 100 also may include a privacy server108 that maintains private user information at the privacy server 108while using applications or services hosted on other servers. Forexample, the privacy server 108 may be used to maintain private data ofa user within one jurisdiction even though the user is accessing anapplication hosted on a server (e.g., the content management server 102)located outside the jurisdiction. In such cases, the privacy server 108may intercept communications between a user device 106 or supervisordevice 110 and other devices that include private user information. Theprivacy server 108 may create a token or identifier that does notdisclose the private information and may use the token or identifierwhen communicating with the other servers and systems, instead of usingthe user's private information.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the content management server 102 may be incommunication with one or more additional servers, such as a contentserver 112, a user data server 114, and/or an administrator server 116.Each of these servers may include some or all of the same physical andlogical components as the content management server(s) 102, and in somecases, the hardware and software components of these servers 112-116 maybe incorporated into the content management server(s) 102, rather thanbeing implemented as separate computer servers.

Content server 112 may include hardware and software components togenerate, store, and maintain the content resources for distribution touser devices 106 and other devices in the network 100. For example, incontent distribution networks 100 used for professional training andeducational purposes, content server 112 may include data stores oftraining materials, presentations, plans, syllabi, reviews, evaluations,interactive programs and simulations, course models, course outlines,and various training interfaces that correspond to different materialsand/or different types of user devices 106. In content distributionnetworks 100 used for media distribution, interactive gaming, and thelike, a content server 112 may include media content files such asmusic, movies, television programming, games, and advertisements.

User data server 114 may include hardware and software components thatstore and process data for multiple users relating to each user'sactivities and usage of the content distribution network 100. Forexample, the content management server 102 may record and track eachuser's system usage, including their user device 106, content resourcesaccessed, and interactions with other user devices 106. This data may bestored and processed by the user data server 114, to support usertracking and analysis features. For instance, in the professionaltraining and educational contexts, the user data server 114 may storeand analyze each user's training materials viewed, presentationsattended, courses completed, interactions, evaluation results, and thelike. The user data server 114 may also include a repository foruser-generated material, such as evaluations and tests completed byusers, and documents and assignments prepared by users. In the contextof media distribution and interactive gaming, the user data server 114may store and process resource access data for multiple users (e.g.,content titles accessed, access times, data usage amounts, gaminghistories, user devices and device types, etc.).

Administrator server 116 may include hardware and software components toinitiate various administrative functions at the content managementserver 102 and other components within the content distribution network100. For example, the administrator server 116 may monitor device statusand performance for the various servers, data stores, and/or userdevices 106 in the content distribution network 100. When necessary, theadministrator server 116 may add or remove devices from the network 100,and perform device maintenance such as providing software updates to thedevices in the network 100. Various administrative tools on theadministrator server 116 may allow authorized users to set user accesspermissions to various content resources, monitor resource usage byusers and devices 106, and perform analyses and generate reports onspecific network users and/or devices (e.g., resource usage trackingreports, training evaluations, etc.).

The content distribution network 100 may include one or morecommunication networks 120. Although only a single network 120 isidentified in FIG. 1, the content distribution network 100 may includeany number of different communication networks between any of thecomputer servers and devices shown in FIG. 1 and/or other devicesdescribed herein. Communication networks 120 may enable communicationbetween the various computing devices, servers, and other components ofthe content distribution network 100. As discussed below, variousimplementations of content distribution networks 100 may employdifferent types of networks 120, for example, computer networks,telecommunications networks, wireless networks, and/or any combinationof these and/or other networks.

With reference to FIG. 2, an illustrative distributed computingenvironment 200 is shown, including a computer server 202, four clientcomputing devices 206, and other components that may implement certainembodiments and features described herein. In some embodiments, theserver 202 may correspond to the content management server 102 discussedabove in FIG. 1, and the client computing devices 206 may correspond tothe user devices 106. However, the computing environment 200 illustratedin FIG. 2 may correspond to any other combination of devices and serversconfigured to implement a client-server model or other distributedcomputing architecture.

Client devices 206 may be configured to receive and execute clientapplications over one or more networks 220. Such client applications maybe web browser-based applications and/or standalone softwareapplications, such as mobile device applications. Server 202 may becommunicatively coupled with the client devices 206 via one or morecommunication networks 220. Client devices 206 may receive clientapplications from server 202 or from other application providers (e.g.,public or private application stores). Server 202 may be configured torun one or more server software applications or services, for example,web-based or cloud-based services, to support content distribution andinteraction with client devices 206. Users operating client devices 206may in turn utilize one or more client applications (e.g., virtualclient applications) to interact with server 202 to utilize the servicesprovided by these components.

Various different subsystems and/or components 204A-C may be implementedon server 202. Users operating the client devices 206 may initiate oneor more client applications to use services provided by these subsystemsand components. The subsystems and components within the server 202 andclient devices 206 may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software,or combinations thereof. Various different system configurations arepossible in different distributed computing systems 200 and contentdistribution networks 100. The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is thus oneexample of a distributed computing system and is not intended to belimiting.

Although exemplary computing environment 200 is shown with four clientcomputing devices 206, any number of client computing devices may besupported. Other devices, such as specialized sensor devices, etc., mayinteract with client devices 206 and/or server 202.

As shown in FIG. 2, various security and integration components 208 maybe used to send and manage communications between the server 202 anduser devices 206 over one or more communication networks 220. Thesecurity and integration components 208 may include separate servers,such as web servers and/or authentication servers, and/or specializednetworking components, such as firewalls, routers, gateways, loadbalancers, and the like. In some cases, the security and integrationcomponents 208 may correspond to a set of dedicated hardware and/orsoftware operating at the same physical location and under the controlof same entities as server 202. For example, components 208 may includeone or more dedicated web servers and network hardware in a datacenteror a cloud infrastructure. In other examples, the security andintegration components 208 may correspond to separate hardware andsoftware components which may be operated at a separate physicallocation and/or by a separate entity.

Security and integration components 208 may implement various securityfeatures for data transmission and storage, such as authenticating usersand restricting access to unknown or unauthorized users. In variousimplementations, security and integration components 208 may provide,for example, a file-based integration scheme or a service-basedintegration scheme for transmitting data between the various devices inthe content distribution network 100. Security and integrationcomponents 208 also may use secure data transmission protocols and/orencryption for data transfers, for example, File Transfer Protocol(FTP), Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), and/or Pretty Good Privacy(PGP) encryption.

In some embodiments, one or more web services may be implemented withinthe security and integration components 208 and/or elsewhere within thecontent distribution network 100. Such web services, includingcross-domain and/or cross-platform web services, may be developed forenterprise use in accordance with various web service standards, such asRESTful web services (i.e., services based on the Representation StateTransfer (REST) architectural style and constraints), and/or webservices designed in accordance with the Web Service Interoperability(WS-I) guidelines. Some web services may use the Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol to provide secureconnections between the server 202 and user devices 206. SSL or TLS mayuse HTTP or HTTPS to provide authentication and confidentiality. Inother examples, web services may be implemented using REST over HTTPSwith the OAuth open standard for authentication, or using theWS-Security standard which provides for secure SOAP messages using XMLencryption. In other examples, the security and integration components208 may include specialized hardware for providing secure web services.For example, security and integration components 208 may include securenetwork appliances having built-in features such as hardware-acceleratedSSL and HTTPS, WS-Security, and firewalls. Such specialized hardware maybe installed and configured in front of any web servers, so that anyexternal devices may communicate directly with the specialized hardware.

Communication network(s) 220 may be any type of network familiar tothose skilled in the art that can support data communications using anyof a variety of commercially-available protocols, including withoutlimitation, TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol),SNA (systems network architecture), IPX (Internet packet exchange),Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols,Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Secure Hyper Text TransferProtocol (HTTPS), Bluetooth®, Near Field Communication (NFC), and thelike. Merely by way of example, network(s) 220 may be local areanetworks (LAN), such as one based on Ethernet, Token-Ring and/or thelike. Network(s) 220 also may be wide-area networks, such as theInternet. Networks 220 may include telecommunication networks such as apublic switched telephone networks (PSTNs), or virtual networks such asan intranet or an extranet. Infrared and wireless networks (e.g., usingthe Institute of Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) 802.11 protocol suiteor other wireless protocols) also may be included in networks 220.

Computing environment 200 also may include one or more data stores 210and/or back-end servers 212. In certain examples, the data stores 210may correspond to data store server(s) 104 discussed above in FIG. 1,and back-end servers 212 may correspond to the various back-end servers112-116. Data stores 210 and servers 212 may reside in the samedatacenter or may operate at a remote location from server 202. In somecases, one or more data stores 210 may reside on a non-transitorystorage medium within the server 202. Other data stores 210 and back-endservers 212 may be remote from server 202 and configured to communicatewith server 202 via one or more networks 220. In certain embodiments,data stores 210 and back-end servers 212 may reside in a storage-areanetwork (SAN), or may use storage-as-a-service (STaaS) architecturalmodel.

With reference to FIG. 3, an illustrative set of data stores and/or datastore servers is shown, corresponding to the data store servers 104 ofthe content distribution network 100 discussed above in FIG. 1. One ormore individual data stores 301-310 may reside in storage on a singlecomputer server 104 (or a single server farm or cluster) under thecontrol of a single entity, or may reside on separate servers operatedby different entities and/or at remote locations. In some embodiments,data stores 301-310 may be accessed by the content management server 102and/or other devices and servers within the network 100 (e.g., userdevices 106, supervisor devices 110, administrator servers 116, etc.).Access to one or more of the data stores 301-310 may be limited ordenied based on the processes, user credentials, and/or devicesattempting to interact with the data store.

The paragraphs below describe examples of specific data stores that maybe implemented within some embodiments of a content distribution network100. It should be understood that the below descriptions of data stores301-310, including their functionality and types of data stored therein,are illustrative and non-limiting. Data store server architecture, anddesign, and the execution of specific data stores 301-310 may depend onthe context, size, and functional requirements of a content distributionnetwork 100. For example, in content distribution systems 100 used forprofessional training and educational purposes, separate databases orfile-based storage systems may be implemented in data store server(s)104 to store trainee and/or student data, trainer and/or professor data,training module data and content descriptions, training results,evaluation data, and the like. In contrast, in content distributionsystems 100 used for media distribution from content providers tosubscribers, separate data stores may be implemented in data storesserver(s) 104 to store listings of available content titles anddescriptions, content title usage statistics, subscriber profiles,account data, payment data, network usage statistics, etc.

A user profile data store 301, also referred to herein as a user profiledatabase 301, may include information relating to the end users withinthe content distribution network 100. This information may include usercharacteristics such as the user names, access credentials (e.g., loginsand passwords), user preferences, and information relating to anyprevious user interactions within the content distribution network 100(e.g., requested content, posted content, content modules completed,training scores or evaluations, other associated users, etc.). In someembodiments, this information can relate to one or several individualend users such as, for example, one or several students, teachers,administrators, or the like, and in some embodiments, this informationcan relate to one or several institutional end users such as, forexample, one or several schools, groups of schools such as one orseveral school districts, one or several colleges, one or severaluniversities, one or several training providers, or the like. In someembodiments, this information can identify one or several usermemberships in one or several groups such as, for example, a student'smembership in a university, school, program, grade, course, class, orthe like.

In some embodiments in which the one or several end users areindividuals, and specifically are students, the user profile database301 can further include information relating to these students' academicand/or educational history. This information can identify one or severalcourses of study that the student has initiated, completed, and/orpartially completed, as well as grades received in those courses ofstudy. In some embodiments, the student's academic and/or educationalhistory can further include information identifying student performanceon one or several tests, quizzes, and/or assignments. In someembodiments, this information can be stored in a tier of memory that isnot the fastest memory in the content delivery network 100.

The user profile database 301 can include information relating to one orseveral student learning preferences. In some embodiments, for example,the student may have one or several preferred learning styles, one orseveral most effective learning styles, and/or the like. In someembodiments, the students learning style can be any learning styledescribing how the student best learns or how the student prefers tolearn. In one embodiment, these learning styles can include, forexample, identification of the student as an auditory learner, as avisual learner, and/or as a tactile learner. In some embodiments, thedata identifying one or several student learning styles can include dataidentifying a learning style based on the student's educational historysuch as, for example, identifying a student as an auditory learner whenthe student has received significantly higher grades and/or scores onassignments and/or in courses favorable to auditory learners. In someembodiments, this information can be stored in a tier of memory that isnot the fastest memory in the content delivery network 100.

The user profile database 301 can further include information relatingto one or several teachers and/or instructors who are responsible fororganizing, presenting, and/or managing the presentation of informationto the student. In some embodiments, user profile database 301 caninclude information identifying courses and/or subjects that have beentaught by the teacher, data identifying courses and/or subjectscurrently taught by the teacher, and/or data identifying courses and/orsubjects that will be taught by the teacher. In some embodiments, thiscan include information relating to one or several teaching styles ofone or several teachers. In some embodiments, the user profile database301 can further include information indicating past evaluations and/orevaluation reports received by the teacher. In some embodiments, theuser profile database 301 can further include information relating toimprovement suggestions received by the teacher, training received bythe teacher, continuing education received by the teacher, and/or thelike. In some embodiments, this information can be stored in a tier ofmemory that is not the fastest memory in the content delivery network100.

An accounts data store 302, also referred to herein as an accountsdatabase 302, may generate and store account data for different users invarious roles within the content distribution network 100. For example,accounts may be created in an accounts data store 302 for individual endusers, supervisors, administrator users, and entities such as companiesor educational institutions. Account data may include account types,current account status, account characteristics, and any parameters,limits, restrictions associated with the accounts.

A content library data store 303, also referred to herein as a contentlibrary database 303, may include information describing the individualcontent items (or content resources) available via the contentdistribution network 100. In some embodiments, the library data store303 may include metadata, properties, and other characteristicsassociated with the content resources stored in the content server 112.Such data may identify one or more aspects or content attributes of theassociated content resources, for example, subject matter, access level,or skill level of the content resources, license attributes of thecontent resources (e.g., any limitations and/or restrictions on thelicensable use and/or distribution of the content resource), priceattributes of the content resources (e.g., a price and/or pricestructure for determining a payment amount for use or distribution ofthe content resource), rating attributes for the content resources(e.g., data indicating the evaluation or effectiveness of the contentresource), and the like. In some embodiments, the library data store 303may be configured to allow updating of content metadata or properties,and to allow the addition and/or removal of information relating to thecontent resources. For example, content relationships may be implementedas graph structures, which may be stored in the library data store 303or in an additional store for use by selection algorithms along with theother metadata.

A pricing data store 304 may include pricing information and/or pricingstructures for determining payment amounts for providing access to thecontent distribution network 100 and/or the individual content resourceswithin the network 100. In some cases, pricing may be determined basedon a user's access to the content distribution network 100, for example,a time-based subscription fee, or pricing based on network usage. Inother cases, pricing may be tied to specific content resources. Certaincontent resources may have associated pricing information, whereas otherpricing determinations may be based on the resources accessed, theprofiles and/or accounts of the user, and the desired level of access(e.g., duration of access, network speed, etc.). Additionally, thepricing data store 304 may include information relating to compilationpricing for groups of content resources, such as group prices and/orprice structures for groupings of resources.

A license data store 305 may include information relating to licensesand/or licensing of the content resources within the contentdistribution network 100. For example, the license data store 305 mayidentify licenses and licensing terms for individual content resourcesand/or compilations of content resources in the content server 112, therights holders for the content resources, and/or common or large-scaleright holder information such as contact information for rights holdersof content not included in the content server 112.

A content access data store 306 may include access rights and securityinformation for the content distribution network 100 and specificcontent resources. For example, the content access data store 306 mayinclude login information (e.g., user identifiers, logins, passwords,etc.) that can be verified during user login attempts to the network100. The content access data store 306 also may be used to storeassigned user roles and/or user levels of access. For example, a user'saccess level may correspond to the sets of content resources and/or theclient or server applications that the user is permitted to access.Certain users may be permitted or denied access to certain applicationsand resources based on their subscription level, training program,course/grade level, etc. Certain users may have supervisory access overone or more end users, allowing the supervisor to access all or portionsof the end user's content, activities, evaluations, etc. Additionally,certain users may have administrative access over some users and/or someapplications in the content management network 100, allowing such usersto add and remove user accounts, modify user access permissions, performmaintenance updates on software and servers, etc.

A source data store 307 may include information relating to the sourceof the content resources available via the content distribution network.For example, a source data store 307 may identify the authors andoriginating devices of content resources, previous pieces of data and/orgroups of data originating from the same authors or originating devices,and the like.

An evaluation data store 308 may include information used to direct theevaluation of users and content resources in the content managementnetwork 100. In some embodiments, the evaluation data store 308 maycontain, for example, the analysis criteria and the analysis guidelinesfor evaluating users (e.g., trainees/students, gaming users, mediacontent consumers, etc.) and/or for evaluating the content resources inthe network 100. The evaluation data store 308 also may includeinformation relating to evaluation processing tasks, for example, theidentification of users and user devices 106 that have received certaincontent resources or accessed certain applications, the status ofevaluations or evaluation histories for content resources, users, orapplications, and the like. Evaluation criteria may be stored in theevaluation data store 308 including data and/or instructions in the formof one or several electronic rubrics or scoring guides for use in theevaluation of the content, users, or applications. The evaluation datastore 308 also may include past evaluations and/or evaluation analysesfor users, content, and applications, including relative rankings,characterizations, explanations, and the like.

A thread data store 309, also referred to herein as a thread database309 can include information relating to one or several conversationthreads, which can each include one or several user posts. In someembodiments, the thread data store 309 can include thread informationidentifying, for example, the number of users that can access a thread,the access level(s) of the users that can access a thread including, forexample, a read-only access level, a read-write access level, or thelike. In some embodiments, the thread information can include threadmetadata that can identify one or several aspects of the threadincluding, for example, thread content, post or comment information, orthe like. In some embodiments, the thread information can include threaduser data that can track one or several user interactions with thethread such as, for example, user posts to the thread, metadata of userposts to the thread, activity level in the thread, or the like.

In addition to the illustrative data stores described above, data storeserver(s) 104 (e.g., database servers, file-based storage servers, etc.)may include one or more external data aggregators 310. External dataaggregators 310 may include third-party data sources accessible to thecontent management network 100, but not maintained by the contentmanagement network 100. External data aggregators 310 may include anyelectronic information source relating to the users, content resources,or applications of the content distribution network 100. For example,external data aggregators 310 may be third-party data stores containingdemographic data, education related data, 310 sales data, health relateddata, and the like. Illustrative external data aggregators 310 mayinclude, for example, social networking web servers, public records datastores, learning management systems, educational institution servers,business servers, consumer sales data stores, medical record datastores, etc. Data retrieved from various external data aggregators 310may be used to verify and update user account information, suggest usercontent, and perform user and content evaluations.

With reference now to FIG. 4, a block diagram is shown illustrating anembodiment of one or more content management servers 102 within acontent distribution network 100. As discussed above, content managementserver(s) 102 may include various server hardware and softwarecomponents that manage the content resources within the contentdistribution network 100 and provide interactive and adaptive content tousers on various user devices 106. For example, content managementserver(s) 102 may provide instructions to send and receive informationfrom the other devices within the content distribution network 100, inorder to manage and transmit content resources, user data, and server orclient applications executing within the network 100.

A content management server 102 may include a content customizationsystem 402. The content customization system 402 may be implementedusing dedicated hardware within the content distribution network 100(e.g., a content customization server 402), or using designated hardwareand software resources within a shared content management server 102. Insome embodiments, the content customization system 402 may adjust theselection and adaptive capabilities of content resources to match theneeds and desires of the users receiving the content. For example, thecontent customization system 402 may query various data stores andservers 104 to retrieve user information, such as user preferences andcharacteristics (e.g., from a user profile data store 301), user accessrestrictions to content recourses (e.g., from a content access datastore 306), previous user results and content evaluations (e.g., from anevaluation data store 308), and the like. Based on the retrievedinformation from data stores 104 and other data sources, the contentcustomization system 402 may modify content resources for individualusers.

A content management server 102 also may include a user managementsystem 404. The user management system 404 may be implemented usingdedicated hardware within the content distribution network 100 (e.g., auser management server 404), or using designated hardware and softwareresources within a shared content management server 102. In someembodiments, the user management system 404 may monitor the progress ofusers through various types of content resources and groups, such asmedia compilations, courses or curriculums in training or educationalcontexts, interactive gaming environments, and the like. For example,the user management system 404 may query one or more databases and/ordata store servers 104 to retrieve user data such as associated contentcompilations or programs, content completion status, user goals,results, and the like.

A content management server 102 also may include an evaluation system406. The evaluation system 406 may be implemented using dedicatedhardware within the content distribution network 100 (e.g., anevaluation server 406), or using designated hardware and softwareresources within a shared content management server 102. The evaluationsystem 406 may be configured to receive and analyze information fromuser devices 106. For example, various ratings of content resourcessubmitted by users may be compiled and analyzed, and then stored in adata store (e.g., a content library data store 303 and/or evaluationdata store 308) associated with the content. In some embodiments, theevaluation server 406 may analyze the information to determine theeffectiveness or appropriateness of content resources with, for example,a subject matter, an age group, a skill level, or the like. In someembodiments, the evaluation system 406 may provide updates to thecontent customization system 402 or the user management system 404, withthe attributes of one or more content resources or groups of resourceswithin the network 100. The evaluation system 406 also may receive andanalyze user evaluation data from user devices 106, supervisor devices110, and administrator servers 116, etc. For instance, evaluation system406 may receive, aggregate, and analyze user evaluation data fordifferent types of users (e.g., end users, supervisors, administrators,etc.) in different contexts (e.g., media consumer ratings, trainee orstudent comprehension levels, teacher effectiveness levels, gamer skilllevels, etc.).

A content management server 102 also may include a content deliverysystem 408. The content delivery system 408 may be implemented usingdedicated hardware within the content distribution network 100 (e.g., acontent delivery server 408), or using designated hardware and softwareresources within a shared content management server 102. The contentdelivery system 408 may receive content resources from the contentcustomization system 402 and/or from the user management system 404, andprovide the resources to user devices 106. The content delivery system408 may determine the appropriate presentation format for the contentresources based on the user characteristics and preferences, and/or thedevice capabilities of user devices 106. If needed, the content deliverysystem 408 may convert the content resources to the appropriatepresentation format and/or compress the content before transmission. Insome embodiments, the content delivery system 408 may also determine theappropriate transmission media and communication protocols fortransmission of the content resources.

In some embodiments, the content delivery system 408 may includespecialized security and integration hardware 410, along withcorresponding software components to implement the appropriate securityfeatures for content transmission and storage, to provide the supportednetwork and client access models, and to support the performance andscalability requirements of the network 100. The security andintegration layer 410 may include some or all of the security andintegration components 208 discussed above in FIG. 2, and may controlthe transmission of content resources and other data, as well as thereceipt of requests and content interactions, to and from the userdevices 106, supervisor devices 110, administrative servers 116, andother devices in the network 100.

With reference now to FIG. 5, a block diagram of an illustrativecomputer system is shown. The system 500 may correspond to any of thecomputing devices or servers of the content distribution network 100described above, or any other computing devices described herein, andspecifically can include, for example, one or several of the userdevices 106, the supervisor device 110, and/or any of the servers 102,104, 108, 112, 114, 116. In this example, computer system 500 includesprocessing units 504 that communicate with a number of peripheralsubsystems via a bus subsystem 502. These peripheral subsystems include,for example, a storage subsystem 510, an I/O subsystem 526, and acommunications subsystem 532.

Bus subsystem 502 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 500 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 502 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple buses. Bus subsystem 502 may be any of several types of busstructures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Sucharchitectures may include, for example, an Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, EnhancedISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) localbus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which can beimplemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1standard.

Processing unit 504, which may be implemented as one or more integratedcircuits (e.g., a conventional microprocessor or microcontroller),controls the operation of computer system 500. One or more processors,including single core and/or multicore processors, may be included inprocessing unit 504. As shown in the figure, processing unit 504 may beimplemented as one or more independent processing units 506 and/or 508with single or multicore processors and processor caches included ineach processing unit. In other embodiments, processing unit 504 may alsobe implemented as a quad-core processing unit or larger multicoredesigns (e.g., hexa-core processors, octo-core processors, ten-coreprocessors, or greater).

Processing unit 504 may execute a variety of software processes embodiedin program code, and may maintain multiple concurrently executingprograms or processes. At any given time, some or all of the programcode to be executed can be resident in processor(s) 504 and/or instorage subsystem 510. In some embodiments, computer system 500 mayinclude one or more specialized processors, such as digital signalprocessors (DSPs), outboard processors, graphics processors,application-specific processors, and/or the like.

I/O subsystem 526 may include device controllers 528 for one or moreuser interface input devices and/or user interface output devices 530.User interface input and output devices 530 may be integral with thecomputer system 500 (e.g., integrated audio/video systems, and/ortouchscreen displays), or may be separate peripheral devices which areattachable/detachable from the computer system 500. The I/O subsystem526 may provide one or several outputs to a user by converting one orseveral electrical signals to user perceptible and/or interpretableform, and may receive one or several inputs from the user by generatingone or several electrical signals based on one or several user-causedinteractions with the I/O subsystem such as the depressing of a key orbutton, the moving of a mouse, the interaction with a touchscreen ortrackpad, the interaction of a sound wave with a microphone, or thelike.

Input devices 530 may include a keyboard, pointing devices such as amouse or trackball, a touchpad or touch screen incorporated into adisplay, a scroll wheel, a click wheel, a dial, a button, a switch, akeypad, audio input devices with voice command recognition systems,microphones, and other types of input devices. Input devices 530 mayalso include three dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks,gamepads and graphic tablets, and audio/visual devices such as speakers,digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams,image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3Dprinters, laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices. Additionalinput devices 530 may include, for example, motion sensing and/orgesture recognition devices that enable users to control and interactwith an input device through a natural user interface using gestures andspoken commands, eye gesture recognition devices that detect eyeactivity from users and transform the eye gestures as input into aninput device, voice recognition sensing devices that enable users tointeract with voice recognition systems through voice commands, medicalimaging input devices, MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments, andthe like.

Output devices 530 may include one or more display subsystems, indicatorlights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc.Display subsystems may include, for example, cathode ray tube (CRT)displays, flat-panel devices, such as those using a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) or plasma display, light-emitting diode (LED) displays,projection devices, touch screens, and the like. In general, use of theterm “output device” is intended to include all possible types ofdevices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system500 to a user or other computer. For example, output devices 530 mayinclude, without limitation, a variety of display devices that visuallyconvey text, graphics and audio/video information such as monitors,printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems, plotters,voice output devices, and modems.

Computer system 500 may comprise one or more storage subsystems 510,comprising hardware and software components used for storing data andprogram instructions, such as system memory 518 and computer-readablestorage media 516. The system memory 518 and/or computer-readablestorage media 516 may store program instructions that are loadable andexecutable on processing units 504, as well as data generated during theexecution of these programs.

Depending on the configuration and type of computer system 500, systemmemory 518 may be stored in volatile memory (such as random accessmemory (RAM) 512) and/or in non-volatile storage drives 514 (such asread-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.) The RAM 512 may contain dataand/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/orpresently being operated and executed by processing units 504. In someimplementations, system memory 518 may include multiple different typesof memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM). In some implementations, a basic input/outputsystem (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transferinformation between elements within computer system 500, such as duringstart-up, may typically be stored in the non-volatile storage drives514. By way of example, and not limitation, system memory 518 mayinclude application programs 520, such as client applications, Webbrowsers, mid-tier applications, server applications, etc., program data522, and an operating system 524.

Storage subsystem 510 also may provide one or more tangiblecomputer-readable storage media 516 for storing the basic programmingand data constructs that provide the functionality of some embodiments.Software (programs, code modules, instructions) that when executed by aprocessor provide the functionality described herein may be stored instorage subsystem 510. These software modules or instructions may beexecuted by processing units 504. Storage subsystem 510 may also providea repository for storing data used in accordance with the presentinvention.

Storage subsystem 300 may also include a computer-readable storage mediareader that can further be connected to computer-readable storage media516. Together and, optionally, in combination with system memory 518,computer-readable storage media 516 may comprehensively representremote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plus storagemedia for temporarily and/or more permanently containing, storing,transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information.

Computer-readable storage media 516 containing program code, or portionsof program code, may include any appropriate media known or used in theart, including storage media and communication media, such as but notlimited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information. This can include tangible computer-readable storagemedia such as RAM, ROM, electronically erasable programmable ROM(EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disk (DVD), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or other tangible computer readable media. This can also includenontangible computer-readable media, such as data signals, datatransmissions, or any other medium which can be used to transmit thedesired information and which can be accessed by computer system 500.

By way of example, computer-readable storage media 516 may include ahard disk drive that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatilemagnetic media, a magnetic disk drive that reads from or writes to aremovable, nonvolatile magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive thatreads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk such as aCD ROM, DVD, and Blu-Ray® disk, or other optical media.Computer-readable storage media 516 may include, but is not limited to,Zip® drives, flash memory cards, universal serial bus (USB) flashdrives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital video tape, andthe like. Computer-readable storage media 516 may also include,solid-state drives (SSD) based on non-volatile memory such asflash-memory based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid state ROM, andthe like, SSDs based on volatile memory such as solid state RAM, dynamicRAM, static RAM, DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, andhybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM and flash memory based SSDs.The disk drives and their associated computer-readable media may providenon-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, and other data for computer system 500.

Communications subsystem 532 may provide a communication interface fromcomputer system 500 and external computing devices via one or morecommunication networks, including local area networks (LANs), wide areanetworks (WANs) (e.g., the Internet), and various wirelesstelecommunications networks. As illustrated in FIG. 5, thecommunications subsystem 532 may include, for example, one or morenetwork interface controllers (NICs) 534, such as Ethernet cards,Asynchronous Transfer Mode NICs, Token Ring NICs, and the like, as wellas one or more wireless communications interfaces 536, such as wirelessnetwork interface controllers (WNICs), wireless network adapters, andthe like. Additionally and/or alternatively, the communicationssubsystem 532 may include one or more modems (telephone, satellite,cable, ISDN), synchronous or asynchronous digital subscriber line (DSL)units, FireWire® interfaces, USB® interfaces, and the like.Communications subsystem 536 also may include radio frequency (RF)transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and/or data networks(e.g., using cellular telephone technology, advanced data networktechnology, such as 3G, 4G or EDGE (enhanced data rates for globalevolution), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 family standards, or other mobilecommunication technologies, or any combination thereof), globalpositioning system (GPS) receiver components, and/or other components.

The various physical components of the communications subsystem 532 maybe detachable components coupled to the computer system 500 via acomputer network, a FireWire® bus, or the like, and/or may be physicallyintegrated onto a motherboard of the computer system 500. Communicationssubsystem 532 also may be implemented in whole or in part by software.

In some embodiments, communications subsystem 532 may also receive inputcommunication in the form of structured and/or unstructured data feeds,event streams, event updates, and the like, on behalf of one or moreusers who may use or access computer system 500. For example,communications subsystem 532 may be configured to receive data feeds inreal-time from users of social networks and/or other communicationservices, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and/orreal-time updates from one or more third party information sources(e.g., data aggregators 310). Additionally, communications subsystem 532may be configured to receive data in the form of continuous datastreams, which may include event streams of real-time events and/orevent updates (e.g., sensor data applications, financial tickers,network performance measuring tools, clickstream analysis tools,automobile traffic monitoring, etc.). Communications subsystem 532 mayoutput such structured and/or unstructured data feeds, event streams,event updates, and the like to one or more data stores 104 that may bein communication with one or more streaming data source computerscoupled to computer system 500.

Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, thedescription of computer system 500 depicted in the figure is intendedonly as a specific example. Many other configurations having more orfewer components than the system depicted in the figure are possible.For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particularelements might be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or acombination. Further, connection to other computing devices, such asnetwork input/output devices, may be employed. Based on the disclosureand teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the artwill appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the variousembodiments.

In some embodiments, the content distribution network 100 can be used toreceive, evaluate, anonymize, and/or affect one or several conversationthreads. In some embodiments, this action by the content distributionnetwork can be based on a location of a user, which location can bedetermined by location-determining features including locationdetermining hardware and/or software in a user device 106 such as, forexample, GPS receiver components including, for example, a GPS antenna.In some embodiments, this action by the content distribution network canbe based off of a lapsed time and/or a current time. In someembodiments, the lapsed time and/or current time can be determined viaone or several clocks or timers that can be, for example, located in oneor several of the user devices 106 and/or supervisor device 110, and/orin the content management server 102, the data store server 104, and/orthe privacy server 108.

In some embodiments, the content distribution network 100 can be used toaffect the one or several conversation threads to increase theeffectiveness/usefulness of online conversations through tools that canevaluate aspects of one of the conversation threads that can include oneor several user posts. These tools can evaluate aspects of one orseveral user posts, and/or enable evaluation of one or several userposts. In one embodiment, a conversation thread can be evaluated todetermine a contributor effect. This can include determining the degreeto which a contributor participated in and/or added to the conversationthread. This can further include determining the degree to which thecontributors stimulated, stifled, or derailed further conversation andthe degree to which the contributor was referenced or cited.

In some embodiments, a contributor effect score can be generated and canbe used, in connection with other data, to identify, for example, a userweakness, material weakness, an instructor weakness, and/or a topicweakness. Inversely, the contributor effect score can be generated andcan be used in connection with other data to identify, for example, auser strength, the material strength, and instructor strength, and/or atopic strength. In one exemplary embodiment, the contributor effectscore can be used to identify one or several conversation threads thathave not and/or are not generating activity, or are generating activitythat may be unproductive. In such an embodiment, a contributor solutionis identified to remedy the identified weakness. This contributorsolution can be identified, for example, based on the effect of one orseveral contributors on past conversation threads. The contributorsolution can be implemented and the effect of the contributor solutioncan be analyzed. Similarly, in some embodiments, and intervention can beidentified and, in some embodiments, can be provided to a contributor.In such an embodiment, for example, a contributor having a lowcontributor effect score can be identified. An intervention can beselected for the contributor based on the results of the parsing andanalysis of comments provided by the contributor and of commentsprovided by others in response the contributor's comments.

In some embodiments, posts within a conversation thread can be analyzedand anonymized. This anonymization can protect the privacy ofcontributors to the conversation thread. The anonymization can beachieved by retrieving data for participants in the thread, retrievinginformation for materials relevant to the conversation thread, detectingpotential identification data within the conversation thread, andcomparing the potential identification information to the participantand the material data.

Potential identification information can be anonymized when it isdetermined that the potential identification information matchesparticipant data. This potential identification information can include,for example, any data contained in a contribution that can be used tolink a contribution to a contributor including, for example, one orseveral linguistic patterns including, for example, sentence structurestypical to a contributor, word selection typical to a contributor,misspelling typical to a contributor, or the like. In some embodiments,such identification information can be extracted from one or severalcontributions via, for example, stylistic analysis of contribution text,or other known techniques.

In some embodiments, the above discussed actions and processes withrespect to a thread or contributions of one or several threads can solveseveral technical problems. Specifically, the techniques describedherein allow faster processing and analysis of threads than currenttechniques and algorithms. Particularly, the techniques described hereincan enable a single user-supervisor to manage large groups of userslocated at different locations, such as could arise in a classroomenvironment or a virtual classroom environment and who are communicatingvia these one or several communications threads due to the speed withwhich the conversation threads are analyzed and due to the protection ofthe contributor data in those threads provided by the anonymizationdisclosed herein.

With reference now to FIG. 6, a schematic illustration of one embodimentof a conversation thread 600 is shown. The conversation thread 600includes a plurality of contributions 602 connected in a hierarchicalmanner. The contributions 602 can include, for example, a user comment,user-provided content, or the like. In some embodiments, user-providedcontent can include, for example, a citation, a picture, an image, avideo, a video clip, sound clip, a reference, or the like.

The contributions 602 shown in FIG. 6 include a first set ofcontributions 602-A provided by a first user, a second set ofcontributions 602-B provided by a second, and a third set contributions602-C provided by a third user. To facilitate identification ofdifferent sets of contributions, contributions belonging to the firstset of contributions 602-A are indicated with a circle, contributionsbelonging to the second set of contributions 602-B are indicated with asquare, and contributions belonging to the third set of contributions602-C are indicated with a hexagon. As further seen in FIG. 6, each ofthe contributions 602 is identified with a number. The numberidentifying each of the contributions 602 indicates the order in whichthe specific one of the contributions 602 was received. Thus, thecontribution 602 indicated with a “1” is the first received contributionand the contribution 602 indicated with a “9” is the last receivedcontribution.

The contributions 602 are linked via a connector 604. The connector 604indicates the hierarchical relationship between two contributions 602and indicates that one of the contributions 602 is given in response tothe other of the contributions 602. Thus, as seen in FIG. 6, connector604 indicates that the contribution indicated with “3” is given inresponse to the contribution indicated with “1.” As used herein, aresponse contribution indicates the latter received contribution 602 ina pair of contributions 602 linked by the connector 604.

With reference now to FIG. 7, a flowchart illustrating one embodiment ofa process 650 for evaluating one or several contributions is shown. Insome embodiments, the process 650 can be performed using the contentdistribution network 100 and/or the components thereof. The process 650can be used to evaluate one or several contributions that can be, forexample, part of a conversation thread 600.

The process 650 begins at block 652 wherein the conversation thread 600,also referred to herein as the discussion, is retrieved. In someembodiments, this can include the generation of the conversation threadvia the receipt of a plurality of contributions from a plurality of userdevices 106. In some embodiments, these contributions can be receivedencoded in one or several electrical signals, which signals can includeinformation identifying one or several attributes of the user and/or theuser device 106 from which the contribution originated. In someembodiments, these attributes can include, for example, anidentification of the user and/or the user device 106, an indicia of thetime of sending or receipt of the contribution, a location of the userand/or user device and the time of the generation and/or sending of thecontribution, or the like. In some embodiments, the conversation thread600 can be retrieved from one of the databases 104, and particularlyfrom the thread database 309.

After the conversation thread 600 has been retrieved, the process 650proceeds to block 654 wherein discussion contributors are identified. Insome embodiments, this can include identifying different sets ofcontributions, each of which sets can originate from a differentcontributor. This identification can include retrieving informationassociated with a contribution such as some or all of the informationencoded in the one or several electrical signals received from the userdevice 106 from which the contribution originated. In some embodiments,this information can include a user identifier such as, for example, ausername, a user identification number, an identification number of theuser device 106 originating the contribution, or the like.

After the contributors have been identified, the process 650 proceeds toblock 656 wherein contributor data is retrieved. In some embodiments,the contributor data can be any information relating to the contributor.This contributor data can be received from one of the databases such as,for example, the user profile database 301. This information can beretrieved from the user profile database 301 by querying that databasefor information associated with the contributor identified in block 654.In some embodiments, the contributor data can include informationrelating to the contributor such as, for example, information relatingto past contributor actions, past contributor performance, userpreferences, or the like.

After the contributor data has been retrieved, the process 650 proceedsto block 658 wherein the contributor effect is scored. In someembodiments, the scoring of the contributor effect can include theevaluation of the conversation thread 600 to determine whether thatcontributor had a positive or negative influence on the conversationthread 600 and the degree to which the contributor had a positive ornegative influence on the conversation thread 600. In some embodiments,this scoring can include looking at, for example, the number ofcontributor contributions, the number of response contributions arisingfrom the contributor's contributions, references to the contributor'scontributions, and the like. In some embodiments, the scoring of thecontributor effect can further include an evaluation of: conceptualcontent; conversational features; strategies; stylistic and formalconsiderations; sentiment; position in concept ontology of course ordiscussion material; relative conceptual volume as compared with othercontributions; or the like.

After the contributor effect score has been generated, the process 650proceeds to block 660 wherein an indicator of the contributor effect isadded to the contributor data. In some embodiments, this can includeupdating the user data to reflect the degree to which the userpositively or negatively affected conversation thread 600.

With reference now to FIG. 8, a flowchart illustrating one embodiment ofa process 700 for generating a contributor effect score is shown. Insome embodiments, the process 700 can be performed in the place of step658 shown in FIG. 7. The process 700 begins at block 702 wherein anumber of contributions made by a contributor, also referred to hereinas comments, is determined. In some embodiments, this determination caninclude associating each of the contributions 602 in a conversationthread 600 with a value indicative of the contributor responsible forthe contribution 602. After each of the contributions 602 is associatedwith a value, the number of like values can be tallied and the number ofcontributions for a contributor can be determined.

In some embodiments, the number of contributions made by a contributorcan be determined via the user of a counter. In one embodiment, forexample, each contributor can be associated with a unique counter, orwith a unique count. In some embodiments, this unique counter or countcan include one or several sub-counters or sub-counts that can beincremented to track the number of contributions by the user associatedwith the count/counter to a specific thread, in response to a comment ina specific thread, or the like.

This unique counter or count can be incremented when a user contributionis received. Specifically, in one embodiment, when an electrical signalcontaining a contribution as payload is received by, for example, theserver 102, the contributor originating that contribution can beidentified and/or the user device 106 sending the electrical signal canbe identified. The identification of the contributor/user device 106 canbe used to identify the counter or count uniquely associated with thatcontributor/user device 106. Once the counter/count has been identified,the counter/count can be incremented to reflect the newly receivedcontribution.

After the number of contributions for a contributor has been determined,the process 700 proceeds to block 704 wherein a contribution score, alsoreferred to herein as a comment score, is generated. In someembodiments, the comment score can reflect the number of contributionsto a thread that were made by the contributor, the percentage ofcontributions 602 in a conversation thread 600 that are from thecontributor, or the like.

After the common score has been generated, the process 700 proceeds toblock 706 wherein a number of responses to contributions made by thecontributor is determined. In some embodiments, this can be a measure ofthe degree to which the user's contributions resulted in furthercomments being added to the thread, and more generally can indicate theweight or importance of one or several contributions of one or severalof the contributors to a thread. In some embodiments, the weight orimportance of these contributions can be determined based on responsesof one or several other contributors in the thread.

In some embodiments, the determination of the weight or importance ofone or several contributions can include determining the number ofresponses made directly to a contribution, such as, for example, whenthe response is directly connected to the contribution via a singleconnector 604 and/or determining the total number of responses made to acontribution including, for example, responses connected to acontribution by a plurality of connectors 604. With specific referenceto FIG. 6, direct responses to contribution 3 are contributions 4, 5,and 6, and the total group of responses to contribution 3 arecontributions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

In some embodiments, the number of responses generated from acontribution can be determined by identifying the counts or countersassociated with that contribution, retrieving, from those identifiedcounts or counters, a value identifying the total number ofcontributions tracked by that count or counter, and combining thoseretrieved values.

After the number of responses to contributor comments has beendetermined, the process 700 proceeds to block 708 wherein the responsescore is generated. In some embodiments, the response score can reflectthe number of responses to a contribution, the percentage of responsesto the contribution in a conversation thread 600, or the like. In someembodiments, the response score can further reflect the weight orimportance of these contributions. Specifically, in some embodiments,the response score can be affected by: the relevance of one or severalcontributions to others of the contributions; the concept volume of acontribution, the concept spread provided by the contribution and/orresulting from the contribution, the contribution frequency of one orseveral contributors, or the like.

In one embodiment, for example, the value of a response contribution canbe affected by one or several attributes of the contributor of thatresponse contribution. For example, the response score of a contributionhaving a number of responses would be relatively lower if thecontributors of those responses were relatively more prolific and/or iftheir contributions were relatively less relevant to the thread and/orcontributions therein than if the contributors of those responses wererelatively less prolific and/or if their contributions were relativelymore relevant to the thread.

After the response score has been generated, the process 700 proceeds toblock 710 wherein a number of references are determined. In someembodiments, the number of references is the number of times that acontribution or the content of a contribution is referred to in aconversation thread. In some embodiments, these references can be foundin response contributions, or in non-response contributions added to athread after the contribution that is being referenced. In someembodiments, the number of references can be determined by contentevaluation of the contributions 602 of the conversation thread 600. Thiscontent evaluation can be performed by, for example, the server using,for example, semantic analysis, natural language processing, or thelike. In some embodiments, this content evaluation can further includean evaluation of the quality of references such as by, for example, anevaluation of the relevance of the reference, an evaluation of thetopical content of the reference, an evaluation of the authority of thereference, or the like. The number of references and/or a valueindicative of the quality of the references can be stored in one of thedatabases such as the thread database 309.

After the number of references has been determined, the process 700proceeds to block 712 wherein a reference score is generated. In someembodiments, the reference score can reflect the number of references toa contribution 602, the percentage of total references in a conversationthread 600 that refer to the contribution 602, or the like. In someembodiments, the reference score can further include informationrelating to the substance and/or quality of the references. In someembodiments, the quality of a reference can be based on the relevance ofthe reference, the topical content of the reference, the authority ofthe reference, or the like.

After the reference score has been generated, the process 700 proceedsto block 714 wherein a combined score is generated. In some embodiments,the combined score can be based off of one or several of the commentscore, the response score, and the reference score. In some embodiments,the weightings of these different scores can be based on a decidedimportance of each of the scores. This combined score can be generatedby the server 102.

After the combined score has been generated, the process 700 proceeds todecision state 716, wherein it is determined if there is an additionalcontributor to be analyzed. In some embodiments, this determination canbe made by, for example, the server 102. In some embodiments, this caninclude evaluation of the conversation thread 600 to determine if acombined score for each of the contributors to the conversation thread600 has been determined. If a combined score for a contributor to theconversation thread 600 has not been determined, then the process 700can return to block 702 and proceeds as outlined above. If the combinedscore has been generated for all of the contributors to the conversationthread 600, then the process 700 can advance to block 718 and proceedsas outlined in block 660 of FIG. 7.

With reference now to FIG. 9, a flowchart illustrating one embodiment ofa process 730 for anonymizing contribution data is shown. In someembodiments, the process 730 can be performed to protect the identity ofone or several contributors to one or several conversation threads. Theprocess 730 begins at block 732 wherein comment data, also referred toherein as contribution data, is received. Comment data is informationassociated with a contribution and can include, for example, commentcontent data which is the content of the contribution and/or isassociated with the content of the contribution, and comment structuredata which relates to non-content aspects of the contribution such as,for example, the thread in which the contribution is placed, the orderin the thread in which the contribution is placed, identification of theuser originating the contribution, one or several user attributes, orthe like.

In some embodiments, comment data can be received simultaneously withthe receipt of a contribution via one or several encoded electricsignals from a user device 106, and in some embodiments, comment datacan be received at a time other than when the contribution 602 is addedto a conversation thread 600. In some embodiments, this data canidentify, for example, the contributor, the date and time of thecontribution, one or several groups, courses, or conversation threads600 associated with the contribution 602, information relating to thecontributor, or the like. In some embodiments, the comment data can bestored in one of the databases 104 such as, for example the user profiledatabase 301 and/or the thread database 309.

After the comment data has been received, the process 730 proceeds toblock 734 wherein anonymization criteria are received. In someembodiments, the anonymization criteria can comprise one or severalanonymization rules that can, for example, identify the degree to whichthe contribution is anonymized. In some embodiments, these rules canspecify how a contribution should be anonymized, what level ofidentifying information should be removed from a contribution, or thelike. In some embodiments, these rules can be varied based on, forexample, the intended use of the contributions 602, the physicallocation of the user at the time of the origination of the contributionand/or at the time of the receipt of the contribution by, for example,server 102 from the user device source of the contribution, or the like.

After the anonymization criteria have been received, the process 730proceeds to block 736 wherein the comment data is evaluated. In someembodiments, the evaluation of the comment data can include a contentevaluation of the comment data to detect identifying data that may becontained within the comment data. This can include the parsing of thecomment and/or the comment data to extract one or several images, textor character strings, or any other data that could be identifying. Insome embodiments, this identifying data may identify, for example, theauthor of the contribution 602, another contributor, or another person.The comment data can be evaluated by the server 102, the privacy server108, and/or any other component of the content distribution network 100.

After the comment data has been evaluated, the process 730 proceeds toblock 738 wherein identifying data is anonymized. In some embodiments,the anonymization of identifying data can include the deletion ofidentifying data, the redaction of identifying data, the encryption ofidentifying data, the substitution of a code name for a real name, orany other technique that can obscure or destroy the identifying data.The identifying data can be anonymized by the server 102, the privacyserver 108, and/or any other component of the content distributionnetwork.

After the identifying data has been anonymized, which can includeanonymizing identifying data for one or several contributions, one orseveral threads, or the like, the process 730 proceeds to block 740,wherein an alert is generated and provided. In some embodiments, thealert can be generated by the central server 102 and/or the privacyserver 108. The alert can be provided to at least one of the userdevices 106 and/or the supervisor device 110. In some embodiments, analert, containing information relevant to anonymized contributionsoriginating from a single user, can be provided to that user forverification of the anonymization. This can include requestingconfirmation from the user that anonymization has satisfactorilyanonymized the contribution.

In some embodiments, for example, the providing of this alert caninclude the identification of one or several user devices 106 and/oruser accounts associated with the user. After these one or several userdevices 106 and/or user accounts have been identified, the providing ofthis alert can include determining a user location of the user based ondetermining if the user is actively using one of the identified userdevices 106 and/or accounts. If the user is actively using one of theuser devices and/or accounts, the alert can be provided to the user viathat user device 106 and/or account that is actively being used. If theuser is not actively using a user device 106 and/or account, a defaultdevice, such as a smart phone or tablet, can be identified and the alertcan be provided to this default device. In some embodiments, the alertcan include code to direct the default device to provide an indicator ofthe received alert such as, for example, an aural, tactile, or visualindicator of receipt of the alert.

With reference now to FIG. 10, a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 750 for receiving anonymization criteria is shown. In someembodiments, the process 750 can be performed as part of block 734 ofFIG. 9. The process 750 can be performed by one or several components ofthe content distribution network 100 including, for example, the server102, one or several of the user devices 106, the privacy server 108,and/or the supervisor device 110. The process 750 begins at block 752wherein application data is received. The application data can identifythe intended use of the comment data and the intended location of thatuse. In some embodiments, for example, the application data can indicatethat comment data will be publicly available on one or several websites,and in some embodiments, the application data can indicate that thecomment data will be used in determining user performance.

In some embodiments, the application data can include, for example, thelocation of one or several intended recipient components of the contentdistribution network 100 as determined by location determining hardwareand/or software in those other components. In some embodiments, thishardware and/or software can include one or several GPS receivers and/orantennas. The application data can be specified by the user-supervisorand can be received by, for example, the server 102 and/or the privacyserver 108 from the supervisor device 110

After the application data has been received, the process 750 proceedsto block 754 wherein the anonymization level is determined. In someembodiments, the anonymization level relates to a desired degree ofanonymization. In some embodiments, one or several anonymization tablescan be stored in one of the databases 104 such as, for example, thecontent access data store 306. These one or several anonymization tablescan be generated by one or several users and can be received for storagein the database 104 from, for example, the supervisor device 110, theuser data server 114, and/or the administrator server 116.

In some embodiments, an anonymization table can specify one or severallevels of anonymization that can be based on, for example, the intendeduse of the comment data, the source of the comment data, andspecifically the physical location and/or the active location of theuser and/or user device 106 at the time that the comment data wasgenerated and/or provided to the other components of the contentdistribution network 100, the location of the other components of thecontent distribution network 100 that will be receiving the commentdata, or the like. In some embodiments, the identifying of theanonymization level can include receiving location information, such asphysical and/or active location information from the user device,retrieving an anonymization table, and extracting level data from theanonymization table based on one or both of the physical and activelocation information. In some embodiments, the extracted level data caninclude the anonymization level.

As used herein, the physical location specifies a place that the user islocated, whereas the active location specifies a jurisdictional locationwhich can correspond to a physical location, membership in a group,usage of one or several resources, or the like. In some embodiments, thephysical location can be determined based on data received from locationfeatures, and in some embodiments the active location can be determinedbased on a combination of data received from location features, userdata retrieved from the user profile database 301, and/or data receivedfrom the accounts database 302. Specifically, in some embodiments, theactive location may be based on the physical location of the user andone or several user memberships which can be, for example, membershipsin a university, school, program, grade, course, class, or the like. Insome embodiments, for example, the level of required anonymization mayvary as the comment data is transported from one jurisdiction to anothersuch as, for example, from one state, country, province, county,district, school, university, or region to another state, country,province, county, district, school, university, or region.

After the anonymization level has been determined, the process 750proceeds to block 756 wherein anonymization rules are retrieved. In someembodiments, the anonymization levels can be associated with one orseveral anonymization rules, the application of which results inanonymization of comment data of the desired anonymization level. Insome embodiments, these anonymization rules can identify the criteriafor determining when the desired anonymization level has been achieved.In some embodiments, these anonymization rules can indicate whatcomprises identifying data that is subject for anonymization, how theidentifying data should be anonymized including, for example, deletionof the anonymization data, encoding and/or encryption of theanonymization data, or the like. The anonymization rules can beretrieved from, for example, the database 104, and specifically from thethread database 309. After the anonymization rules have been retrieved,the process 750 continues to block 758 and proceeds with block 736 ofFIG. 9.

With reference now to FIG. 11, a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 770 for evaluating comment data is shown. The process 770can be performed in the place of block 736 of FIG. 9. The process 770begins at block 772 wherein a comment is selected. In some embodiments,comments can be systematically selected until all of the comments 772 ofa conversation thread 770 have been selected and analyzed. The commentcan be selected by the component of the content distribution networkanonymizing the comment. In some embodiments, the selected comment canbe selected from, for example, one or several comments in the threaddatabase 309 by, for example, the privacy server 108 and/or the server102. In some embodiments, the selected comment can be a comment receivedby, for example, the privacy server 108, and can specifically be acomment being provided for inclusion in a thread that is being routedthrough the privacy server. In some embodiments, this privacy server canbe located within the same jurisdiction as the user device 106 that isthe source of the comment. As used herein, a jurisdiction describes anyreal or virtual area or realm in which data is able to freely movewithout being subject to privacy restrictions.

After the comment has been selected, the process 770 proceeds to block774 wherein a user group is identified. In some embodiments, the usergroup can comprise all of the contributors to a conversation thread 770.In some embodiments, the user group can be identified by receiving userdata indicative of group affiliation from the user profile database 301.In some embodiments, for example, the user profile database 301 caninclude one or several values associated with some or all of the usersidentified in the user profile database 301. These one or several valuescan identify groups to which the associated user belongs. In someembodiments, the server 102 and/or the privacy server 108 can query theuser profile database 301 for identification of users in a group. Inresponse to this request, the user profile database 301 and/or aprocessor associated therewith can identify some or all of the usershaving associated values indicative of belonging to the specified group.A response to the received query can then be provided to the server 102and/or the privacy server 108 and can identify these users.

After the user group has been identified, the process 770 proceeds toblock 776 wherein group data is retrieved. In some embodiments, thegroup data can comprise information relating to the contributorsidentified in the user group. In some embodiments, this information canidentify posting and/or contribution histories of the contributors,groups associated with contributors, attributes of the contributor suchas, for example, a learning style, personality, or the like, or anyother desired information. The group data can include data identifyingthe attributes of one or more of the users in the group. This group datacan be retrieved from the user profile database 301.

After the group data has been retrieved, the process 770 proceeds toblock 778 wherein group materials are retrieved. In some embodiments,group materials can be materials associated with the group such as, forexample, course materials, materials referenced by members of the group,group or individual group member work product, or materials identifiedby a user including, for example, a student or teacher. The groupmaterials can be retrieved from one or several of the databases 104including, for example, the content library database 303.

After the group materials have been retrieved, the process 770 proceedsto block 780 wherein comments are compared to the group data and groupmaterials. In some embodiments, this comparison can be used to determinewhether the content of the comments comprises identifying data thatidentifies an individual such as, for example, a contributor to aconversation thread 600 or the like. After comments have been comparedto group data and group materials, the process 770 proceeds to block 782and continues with block 738 of FIG. 9.

With reference now to FIG. 12, a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 800 for comparing one or several comments to group data andgroup materials is shown. In some embodiments, this process 800 can beperformed as part of or in the place of block 780 of FIG. 11. Theprocess 800 begins at block 802 wherein a comment and/or contribution isparsed. In some embodiments, this can include analysis of the content ofthe comment to determine potential identifiers or potential identifyingdata. In some embodiments, the parsing of the comment can includeevaluation of comment content for one or several names, initials,nicknames, salutations, valedictions, signature lines or blocks,addresses, telephone numbers, identification numbers including, forexample, one or several government identification numbers, or the like.The parsing can be performed by the server 102 and/or the privacy server108 according to known parsing algorithms.

After the comment has been parsed, the process 800 proceeds to block804, wherein a potential identifier is selected. In some embodiments,potential identifiers can be serially and/or systematically selectedsuch that all of the potential identifiers within a comment areevaluated. After the potential identifier has been selected, the process800 proceeds to decision state 806 wherein it is determined if thepotential identifier matches user data. In some embodiments, this caninclude comparison of the potential identifier to the user data todetect a match and/or a partial match between the potential identifierand the user data.

If it is determined that the potential identifier does not match theuser data, then a value indicative of the non-match between thepotential identifier and the user data is associated with the potentialidentifier in, for example, the thread database 309, and the process 800proceeds to decision state 808 wherein it is determined if there is anadditional potential identifier. If there is an additional potentialidentifier, then the process returns to block 804 and proceeds asoutlined above. If it is determined that there is not an additionalidentifier, then the process 800 continues to block 810 and proceeds toblock 782 of FIG. 11.

Returning again to decision state 806, if it is determined that thepotential identifier matches the user data, then a value indicative ofthe match between the potential identifier and the user data isassociated with the potential identifier in, for example, the threaddatabase 309, and then the process 800 proceeds to decision state 812wherein it is determined if the potential identifier matches anyinformation contained within the group materials. In some embodiments,this determination can be used to determine whether the potentialidentifier could refer to a material instead of an individual. In someembodiments, the group materials can include materials used in a classassociated with conversation thread 600 containing the comment, materialcited by other contributors in the conversation thread 600 and/oranother conversation thread 600 associated with the contributor and/orgroup, or the like. In some embodiments, a potential identifier thatincludes information that matches the user data and the group materialsmay be selected for further evaluation to determine if the potentialidentifier is an actual identifier, and in some embodiments, thepotential identifier that matches the user data and does not match thegroup materials can be designated as an actual identifier.

If it is determined that the potential identifier does not match any ofthe group materials, then a value identifying the potential identifieras an actual identifier is associated with the potential identifier andthe process 800 proceeds to decision state 808 and proceeds as outlinedabove.

If it is determined that the potential identifier matches some or all ofthe group materials, then the process 800 proceeds to block 814 whereinidentifier association is determined. In some embodiments, determiningidentifier association can include contextual analysis of datasurrounding the potential identifier including some or all of thecontent of the comment to attempt to determine whether the commentrefers to a portion of the group material data and/or to a portion ofthe user data.

This evaluation of identifier association can include identifying awindow size for evaluation, wherein the window size specifies an amountof data surrounding the potential identifier for analysis. In someembodiments, the window size can be specified by a window size parameterthat can be stored in one of the databases 104 such as the threaddatabase 309. After the window size has been determined, the data withinthe window can be identified, retrieved and/or received, and subject toanalysis such as contextual analysis, semantic analysis, or the like. Insome embodiments, this analysis can further include natural languageprocessing. These analyses can output data indicative of the associationof the potential identifier, and specifically can output an indicator ofthe potential identifier being associated with one of the user data andthe group materials, or alternatively an output indicating inconclusiveresults of the analysis. In some embodiments, this output data canfurther include information identifying a degree of confidenceassociated with the indicator of the association of the potentialidentifier.

In some embodiments, the determination of the identifier association caninclude automatic processing, and in some embodiments, if the automaticprocessing does not adequately resolve the ambiguity, the determinationof the identifier association can include triggering human evaluation ofthe comment and the potential identifier. In embodiments in which humanevaluation is triggered, an alert can be provided to a user device 106and a prompt to provide the human evaluation. This alert can include oneor several links to user data and/or group data, as well as can includeeither the content of the comment or a link to the content of thecomment. In some embodiments, and in response to this alert, a responsecan be received from the user identifying the potential identifier aseither an actual identifier or as not an actual identifier.

In some embodiments, a value can be associated with a potentialidentifier based on the results of the determination of block 814. Inone embodiment, a first value can be associated with the potentialidentifier if it is determined that the potential identifier is anactual identifier, a second value can be associated with the potentialidentifier if it is determined that the potential identifier is not anactual identifier, and a third value can be associated with thepotential identifier if the status of the potential identifier isundetermined. In some embodiments, a degree of confidence can beassociated with the status of the potential identifier.

After the identifier association has been determined, the process 800proceeds to decision state 816 wherein it is determined if the potentialidentifier is an actual identifier. In some embodiments, this caninclude evaluation of the values associated with a potential identifierin block 814. If it is determined that the potential identifier is notan actual identifier, then the process 800 proceeds to decision state808 and continues as outlined above. If it is determined that thepotential identifier is an actual identifier, then the process 800proceeds to block 818 and continues with block 782 of FIG. 11. In someembodiments, the process 800 can further continue to decision state 808and can continue as outlined above.

With reference now to FIG. 13, a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 840 for identifying and resolving a problem in a threadbased on thread information and contributor information is shown. Theprocess 840 begins at block 842 wherein conversation thread informationis received. In some embodiments, the conversation thread informationcan identify the contributors to conversation thread 600 and/or thecontributions 602 comprising the conversation thread 600. The threadinformation can be received from one of the databases 104 such as thethread databased 309. After the thread information has been received,the process 840 proceeds to block 844, wherein contributor informationis retrieved. In some embodiments, the contributor information caninclude information identifying one or several traits of thecontributors, the nature of their contribution, or the like. Thecontributor information can be retrieved from, for example, the userprofile database 301.

After the contributor information has been retrieved, the process 840proceeds to block 846 wherein a problem is identified based on threadand/or contributor and/or group information. In some embodiments, theproblem can be identified by evaluation of the thread information whichcan include, for example, an analysis of the conversation thread 600and/or the contributions 602 composing the conversation thread 600. Thisthread information can be retrieved and/or received from the threaddatabase 309.

These identified problems can, for example, relate to the status of athread such as a thread that is inactive, dead, and/or unproductive; canrelate to the content of one or several contributions such as, forexample, the relevance of the contributions to a topic of the thread,which topic can be identified by a user via an input from a user device106 and/or a supervisor device 110 at the time of the creation of thethread and/or can be identified by computerized analysis of a firstcomment in the thread to identify a thread topic.

In some embodiments, an activity level of a thread can be determined bytracking, for example, the rate of new contributions being added to athread and/or the frequency of new contributions being added to athread. In some embodiments, this rate and/or frequency can bedetermined by maintain a moving window identifying a period of time, andtracking the number of contributions received in that moving window. Insome embodiments, one or several values indicative of a thread's statuscan be associated with the thread based on the comparison of the rate ofnew contributions and one or both of the first and second thresholds.

In some embodiments, a thread can be identified as inactive if the rateand/or frequency of receipt of new contributions drops below a firstthreshold, and in some embodiments, a thread can be identified as deadif the rate and/or frequency of receipt of new contributions drops belowa second threshold, which second threshold can be lower than the firstthreshold such that all dead threads are inactive, but not all inactivethreads are dead. In some embodiments, one or both of the first andsecond thresholds can be specified by a user such as a user-supervisorincluding, for example, a teacher via one of the user devices 106 and/orthe supervisor device 110.

In some embodiments, the identification of a thread status such asproductive, active, inactive, dead, and/or the like can include thedetermination of a confidence level of the identified thread status andthe providing of this confidence level. In some embodiments, theconfidence level can be, for example, a measure of the amount of dataindicative of the status. Thus, for example, a thread having acontribution rate that just dropped below one or both of the first andsecond thresholds would have a lower confidence level of the accuracy ofa classification as dead or inactive than a thread having a contributionrate that has been below the one or both of the first and secondthresholds for an extended period of time. In some embodiments, forexample, a timer associated with a thread can be triggered and/or a timedata identifying a time and/or data can be stored when a thread statuschanges. In some embodiments, this can allow the determination of thelapsed time since the last status change, which lapsed time can affectthe confidence level. In some embodiments, the confidence level canfurther be affected by the relative proximity of the thread to athreshold that, if crossed, would result in a status change.

In some embodiments, an alert can be generated and provided when thethread is identified as one or both of inactive and dead. In someembodiments, the alert can be generated by the central server 102 and/orthe privacy server 108. The alert can be provided to at least one of theuser devices 106 and/or the supervisor device 110. In some embodiments,an alert, containing information relevant to the thread and can includeinformation identifying problems associated with the thread. In someembodiments, the alert may include a prompt to, for example, close thethread or take action to rejuvenate the thread.

In some embodiments, for example, the providing of this alert caninclude the identification of the creator of the thread and/or the oneor several user devices 106 and/or supervisor devices 110 and/or useraccounts associated with this identified creator of the thread. Afterthese one or several devices 106, 110 and/or user accounts have beenidentified, the providing of this alert can include determining a userlocation of the thread creator based on determining if the threadcreator is actively using one of the identified devices 106, 110 and/oraccounts. In some embodiments, the use location may correspond to aphysical location of the thread creator and the device 106, 110 beingactively used, and in some embodiments, the use location can comprisethe user account and/or user device which the creator of the thread iscurrently using.

If the thread creator is actively using one of the devices 106, 110and/or accounts, the alert can be provided to the thread creator viathat device 106, 110 and/or user account that is actively being used. Ifthe thread creator is not actively using a device 106, 110 and/oraccount, a default device, such as a smart phone or tablet, can beidentified and the alert can be provided to this default device. Thisdefault device can be a user device 106 and/or supervisor device 110,but can be a subset of those devices 106, 110 that is uniquelyassociated with the user and/or thread creator such as is the case with:a smartphone serving as the user's and/or thread creator's telephone; apersonal tablet or laptop, or the like. In some embodiments, the alertcan include code to direct the default device to provide an indicator ofthe received alert such as, for example, an aural, tactile, or visualindicator of receipt of the alert.

After the problem has been identified, based on thread and/orcontributor information, the process 840 proceeds to block 848 wherein acontributor solution is identified. In some embodiments, the contributorsolution can be any solution to remedy and/or address the identifiedproblem that can be implemented by a contribution and/or contributor.This can include, for example, pairing a first contributor with thesecond contributor and/or with a group of other contributors, posting ofthe contribution from a contributor and/or content from a contributor,or the like. In some embodiments, the solution can be identified basedon past effects of contributions and/or contributors on problems. Insome embodiments, the solution can be a piece of editorial or othercontent, or a piece of computer-generated dialog, that can becontributed automatically to the thread.

In one embodiment, for example, in which the identified problem is theactivity level of the thread, the contributor solution can be one orseveral actions intended to rejuvenate the thread. In some embodiments,these one or several actions can be selected based on the effect ofthese same or similar actions taken in previous and/or similarlysituated threads. In one embodiment, for example, thread data caninclude information identifying one or several topics, authors,contributors, pieces of content, or the like that increase the rate ofcontributions to threads and/or that increase the relevance of thecontributions to threads. In some embodiments, for example, one orseveral topics, authors, contributors, pieces of content, or the likecan be identified as increasing the rate of contributions to a thread ifthe inclusion of these one or several topics, authors, contributors,pieces of content, or the like in one or several previous threadsresulted in increased contributions and/or large numbers of responsecontributions.

In some embodiments, the contributor solutions can be identified byretrieving scores for contributor effect, such as, for example, thecombined score of block 714 of FIG. 8 from one of the databases 104 suchas the thread database 309. In some embodiments, scores can be retrievedfor contributions provided in previous threads for the same threads orfor threads having contributors who individually or in aggregate haveattributes corresponding to the attributes, individually or inaggregate, of the contributors of the problematic thread. Once therelevant contributions have been identified, and the contributor effectscores for those contributions that have been retrieved, the contributorsolution can be selected by identifying the contributions have thelargest contributor scores and/or having the largest contributor scoresand the greatest topical relevance to the current thread. In someembodiments, the contributor solution can be identified by the server102.

After the contributor solution has been identified, the process 840proceeds to block 850 wherein the contributor solution is implemented.In some embodiments, this can include the generation of the contributionand/or the posting of the contribution that is the contributor solutionand/or the creation of the circumstance that is the contributorsolution. In some embodiments, the implementation of the contributorsolution can further include the providing of an alert to the creator ofthe thread identifying the contributor solution, one or several actionsto implement the contributor solution, and/or a prompt to authorizeimplementation of the contributor solution. This alert can be providedin a similar manner to the alerts previously discussed.

After the contributor solution has been implemented, the process 840proceeds to block 852 wherein the contributor solution is evaluated. Insome embodiments, the contributor solution can be evaluated to determineif and to what degree the contributor solution had a desired effectand/or remedied the identified problem. In some embodiments, thecontributor solution can be evaluated by continued tracking of the rateof contributions and the comparison of the rate of contributions afterthe implementation of the contributor solution to before the contributorsolution, comparing the relevancy of contributions after the solution torelevancy of contributions before the solution, or the like. Thisevaluation of the contributor solution can be performed by the server102.

After the contributor solution has been evaluated, the process 840proceeds to decision state 854 wherein it is determined if thecontributor solution was effective. In some embodiments, this caninclude comparing information relating the desired effect and theexpected effect of the contributor solution. In some embodiments, thiscan further include determining a change in one or several attributes ofthe thread attributable to the contributor solution such as, forexample, a change in the rate of contributions, and change in therelevancy of the contributions, or the like. In some embodiments, thischange can be compared with one or several thresholds to determinewhether the contributor solution had the desired effect and the degreeto which the contributor solution had the desired effect. If it isdetermined that the contributor solution was not effective, then theprocess 840 returns to block 848 and proceeds as outlined above. If itis determined that the contributor solution was effective, then theprocess 840 can terminate.

With reference now to FIG. 14, a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 900 for reviving and/or stimulating a conversation thread600 is shown. In some embodiments, the process 900 can be used tomonitor activity in one or more conversation threads. In someembodiments, the process can identify one or more conversation threads600 having one or more undesirable traits and can identify and implementa solution to remedy those undesirable traits. In particular, theprocess 900 can determine when a conversation thread 600 is inactive,unproductive, or dead, and can take steps to revive and/or stimulate theconversation thread 600.

The process 900 begins at block 902 wherein the conversation threads 600are evaluated. In some embodiments, this can include determining thenumber of contributions 602 in each of the conversation threads 600,determining the amount of time between contributions 602 in each of theconversation threads 600, determining the number of contributors to eachof the conversation threads 600, examining the content of theconversation threads 600, comparing the content of the conversationthreads 600 to course or other content, or the like. In someembodiments, the evaluation of one or several conversation threads 600can include associating a value with the one or several conversationthreads 600, which value is indicative of the activity level of theconversation thread 600.

After the conversation threads 600 have been evaluated, the process 900proceeds to block 904, wherein one or several problematic threads areidentified. In some embodiments, the identification of one or severalproblematic conversation threads 600 can include the retrieving of thevalue associated with one of the conversation threads. Theidentification of one or several problematic conversation threads 600can further include retrieving a threshold value, which threshold valuecan demark between an acceptable level of activity and/or productivityin the conversation thread 600 and an unacceptable level of activityand/or productivity in the conversation thread 600. In some embodiments,the value indicative of the activity level and/or productivity level inthe conversation thread 600 can be compared to the threshold value, andthe result of the comparison of those values can indicate whether theconversation thread 600 is a problematic conversation thread 600. Insome embodiments, this step can be repeated until all of the problematicconversation threads 600 have been identified or, in other embodiments,this step can be performed until a subset of all of the problematicconversation threads 600 have been identified including, for example,until one or more problematic conversation threads have been identified.In some embodiments, the step of block 904 can correspond to the step ofblock 846, discussed above.

In some embodiments, an alert can be generated and provided when thethread is identified as problematic. In some embodiments, the alert canbe generated by the central server 102 and/or the privacy server 108.The alert can be provided to at least one of the user devices 106 and/orthe supervisor device 110. In some embodiments, an alert can containinformation relevant to the thread and/or can include informationidentifying a problem associated with the thread. In some embodiments,the alert may include a prompt to, for example, close the thread or takeaction to rejuvenate the thread.

In some embodiments, for example, the providing of this alert caninclude the identification of the creator of the thread and/or the oneor several user devices 106 and/or supervisor devices 110 and/or useraccounts associated with this identified creator of the thread. Afterthese one or several devices 106, 110 and/or user accounts have beenidentified, the providing of this alert can include determining a userlocation of the thread creator based on determining if the threadcreator is actively using one of the identified devices 106, 110 and/oraccounts. In some embodiments, the use location may correspond to aphysical location of the thread creator and the device 106, 110 beingactively used, and in some embodiments, the use location can comprisethe user account and/or user device which the creator of the thread iscurrently using.

If the thread creator is actively using one of the devices 106, 110and/or accounts, the alert can be provided to the thread creator viathat device 106, 110 and/or user account that is actively being used. Ifthe thread creator is not actively using a device 106, 110 and/oraccount, a default device, such as a smart phone or tablet, can beidentified and the alert can be provided to this default device. Thisdefault device can be a user device 106 and/or supervisor device 110,but can be a subset of those devices 106, 110 that is uniquelyassociated with the user and/or thread creator such as is the case with:a smartphone serving as the user's and/or thread creator's telephone; apersonal tablet or laptop, or the like. In some embodiments, the alertcan include code to direct the default device to provide an indicator ofthe received alert such as, for example, an aural, tactile, or visualindicator of receipt of the alert.

After the problematic conversation threads 600 have been identified, theprocess 900 proceeds to block 906 wherein a conversation thread 600 isselected. In some embodiments, the selected conversation thread 600 canbe the first identified problematic conversation thread 600, theconversation thread 600 demonstrating the highest level of inactivityand/or productivity, a randomly selected problematic conversation thread600, or a problematic conversation thread selected in another fashion.The problematic thread can be selected by the server 102.

After the conversation thread has been selected, the process 900proceeds to block 908 wherein the conversation thread topic isdetermined. In some embodiments, the conversation topic can identify,for example, the subject matter and/or intended subject matter of theconversation topic. In some embodiments, this information can bereceived from the originator of the conversation thread 600, and in someembodiments, this information can be identified based on contentanalysis of the contributions. In some embodiments, the results of thecontent analysis of the contributions can be compared to, for example,one of the course materials such as a syllabus or other outline ofmaterial covered by the course, to identify the conversation threadtopic. This determination of the conversation thread topic can beperformed by, for example, the server 102.

After the thread topic has been determined, the process 900 proceeds toblock 910 wherein a contributor with a high effect score is identified.In some embodiments, the contributor can be associated with theconversation thread 600 and/or be associated with the topic or contentof the conversation thread 600. Thus, in one embodiment, the contributorcan belong to a group of users having access to the conversation thread.

In some embodiments, a contributor with a high effect score can be acontributor such as a person having a history of actively engaging inone or several conversation threads, a person whose contributions 602stimulate a large number of responses including one or both of directand indirect responses, or content that has stimulated a large number ofresponses including one or both of direct and indirect responses or thatis expected to stimulate a large number of responses including one orboth of direct and indirect responses. In some embodiments, the higheffect score can correspond to the contributor effect score determinedin the process 650 of FIG. 7.

In one embodiment in which the contributor comprises content that isexpected to stimulate a large number of direct or indirect responses,the content can be retrieved from an external source or severalconversation threads, for example, a popular or controversial video,video clip, article, sound clip picture, event, remedial content,automated conversational agent, learning object, or the like. In suchembodiments, in contrast to the process described above in FIG. 7, thehigh effect score can be based on a number of times the content has beenaccessed, such as, for example, the number of times a video has beenviewed. The effect score of one or several contributors can bedetermined by the server 102.

After the contributor with the high effect score has been identified,the process 900 proceeds to block 912, wherein a contribution 602 fromthe identified contributor is added to the conversation thread 600. Insome embodiments, this can include adding a comment authored by theidentified contributor to the conversation thread 600, addingcontributor content to the conversation thread 600, or the like. In someembodiments, this step can include requesting a contributor to post acomment to a conversation thread 600, and the contributor, in responseto the request, posting a comment to a conversation thread 600.

After the contribution has been added to the problematic conversationthread 600, the process 900 proceeds to block 914 wherein theeffectiveness of the added contribution, also referred to herein as theintervention, is evaluated. In some embodiments, this evaluation can beperformed immediately after the contribution has been added to theconversation thread 600, and in some embodiments, this can be performedafter a predetermined amount of time has passed since the contributionwas added to the conversation thread 600. In some embodiments, theevaluation of the intervention effectiveness can include determining ifthe post-intervention conversation thread 600 has now achieved at leasta minimal level of increased activity as compared to thepre-intervention conversation thread and/or as compared to thethreshold. In some embodiments, a first value can be associated with theconversation thread if the intervention is effective, and a second valuecan be associated with the conversation thread if the intervention isineffective. In some embodiments, the step of block 914 can correspondto the step of block 852.

After the effectiveness of the intervention has been evaluated, theprocess 900 proceeds to decision state 916 wherein it is determined ifthe intervention was effective. In some embodiments, this can includeretrieving the values indicative of the effectiveness of theconversation thread 600 and determining for some or all of theconversation thread 600 whether they are associated with the first orsecond value associated with the conversation thread in block 914.

In some embodiments, an alert can be generated and provided based on thedetermined effectiveness of the intervention. In some embodiments, forexample, an alert indicating the effectiveness of the intervention canbe generated and provided to the user via one or several devices 106,110 when the intervention is determined to be effective, and similarly,an alert indicating the ineffectiveness of the intervention can begenerated and provided to the user via one or several devices 106, 110when the intervention is determined to be ineffective. In someembodiments, the alert can be generated by the central server 102 and/orthe privacy server 108. The alert can be provided to at least one of theuser devices 106 and/or the supervisor device 110. In some embodiments,an alert, containing information relevant to the thread, can includeinformation identifying the degree to which the intervention wasineffective or effective. In some embodiments, the alert can furtherinclude confidence information identifying the confidence in the changeresulting from the intervention.

In some embodiments, for example, the providing of this alert caninclude the identification of the creator of the thread and/or the oneor several user devices 106 and/or supervisor devices 110 and/or useraccounts associated with this identified creator of the thread. Afterthese one or several devices 106, 110 and/or user accounts have beenidentified, the providing of this alert can include determining a userlocation of the thread creator based on determining if the threadcreator is actively using one of the identified devices 106, 110 and/oraccounts. In some embodiments, the use location may correspond to aphysical location of the thread creator and the device 106, 110 beingactively used, and in some embodiments, the use location can comprisethe user account and/or user device which the creator of the thread iscurrently using.

If the thread creator is actively using one of the devices 106, 110and/or accounts, the alert can be provided to the thread creator viathat device 106, 110 and/or user account that is actively being used. Ifthe thread creator is not actively using a device 106, 110 and/oraccount, a default device, such as a smart phone or tablet, can beidentified and the alert can be provided to this default device. Thisdefault device can be a user device 106 and/or supervisor device 110,but can be a subset of those devices 106, 110 that is uniquelyassociated with the user and/or thread creator such as is the case with:a smartphone serving as the user's and/or thread creator's telephone; apersonal tablet or laptop, or the like. In some embodiments, the alertcan include code to direct the default device to provide an indicator ofthe received alert such as, for example, an aural, tactile, or visualindicator of receipt of the alert.

At decision state 916, if it is determined that the intervention wasineffective, then the process 900 returns to block 910 and proceeds asoutlined above. If it is determined that the intervention was effective,then the process 900 proceeds to decision state 918 and determines ifthere are additional problematic conversation threads 600. In someembodiments, this can include retrieving an identifier of allproblematic threads identified in block 904, and determining which ofthose problematic threads have received interventions. In someembodiments, for example, a value indicative of an intervention can beassociated with a problematic conversation thread 600 when theintervention has been effectively completed. In some embodiments, thedetermination of whether there are additional problematic conversationthreads 600 can include, for example, determining if there are anyremaining problematic conversation threads 600 that are not associatedwith a value indicative of effectively completed intervention. If it isdetermined that there are additional problematic conversation threads600, then the process 900 returns to block 906 and proceeds as outlinedabove. If it is determined that there are no additional deadconversation threads 600, then the process 900 can, in some embodiments,end.

A number of variations and modifications of the disclosed embodimentscan also be used. Specific details are given in the above description toprovide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it isunderstood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specificdetails. For example, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms,structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail inorder to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

Implementation of the techniques, blocks, steps and means describedabove may be done in various ways. For example, these techniques,blocks, steps and means may be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing unitsmay be implemented within one or more application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signalprocessing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers,micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed toperform the functions described above, and/or a combination thereof.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a processwhich is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a swim diagram, a dataflow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although adepiction may describe the operations as a sequential process, many ofthe operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. Inaddition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process isterminated when its operations are completed, but could have additionalsteps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method,a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a processcorresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return ofthe function to the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardwaredescription languages, and/or any combination thereof. When implementedin software, firmware, middleware, scripting language, and/or microcode,the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may bestored in a machine readable medium such as a storage medium. A codesegment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, afunction, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, asoftware package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions,data structures, and/or program statements. A code segment may becoupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/orreceiving information, data, arguments, parameters, and/or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable mediumtangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing themethodologies described herein. For example, software codes may bestored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor orexternal to the processor. As used herein the term “memory” refers toany type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or otherstorage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memoryor number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.

Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may representone or more memories for storing data, including read only memory (ROM),random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic diskstorage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/orother machine readable mediums for storing information. The term“machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable orfixed storage devices, optical storage devices, and/or various otherstorage mediums capable of storing that contain or carry instruction(s)and/or data.

While the principles of the disclosure have been described above inconnection with specific apparatuses and methods, it is to be clearlyunderstood that this description is made only by way of example and notas limitation on the scope of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for location-based anonymization, thesystem comprising: a user device comprising location-determiningfeatures configured to determine a physical location of the user device;and at least one server configured to: receive a contribution from theuser device via a communication network, wherein the contributioncomprises content for placement in a conversation thread; determine ananonymization level for applying to the contribution, whereindetermining the anonymization level comprises: receive physical locationinformation identifying a physical location of the user device; andextract data identifying an anonymization level from an anonymizationtable based on the physical location information, wherein theanonymization level is specific to a geographic location of a pluralityof users; and anonymize a potential identifier according to thedetermined anonymization level when a non-match of the potentialidentifier and class materials associated with the conversation threadis determined.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one serveris further configured to generate and provide an alert to the userdevice, wherein the alert comprises code to direct the user device toprovide an indicator of receipt of the alert via an Input/Outputsubsystem of the user device, wherein the indicator of receipt of thealert comprises: an aural indicator; a tactile indicator; and a visualindicator.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the contribution comprisescontribution data identifying an originator of the contribution.
 4. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the at least one server is further configuredto determine an active location of the originator of the contribution,wherein the active location is based on the physical location of theuser and on a membership of the user.
 5. The system of claim 4, whereinextracting data from the anonymization table is based on the physicallocation information of the user device and the active location of theuser.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one server isfurther configured to retrieve anonymization rules corresponding to theanonymization level, and wherein the location-determining featurescomprise a Global Positioning System receiver and a Global PositioningSystem antenna.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least oneserver is further configured to retrieve course materials associatedwith the conversation thread.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the atleast one server is further configured to identify the potentialidentifier as an actual identifier when the potential identifier matchesuser data and when the potential identifier does not match groupmaterials.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server isfurther configured to identify the potential identifier as not an actualidentifier when the potential identifier does not match user data. 10.The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one server is furtherconfigured to identify the potential identifier as not an actualidentifier when the potential identifier matches user data, when thepotential identifier matches a portion of the course materials, and whenthe potential identifier is associated with the course materials. 11.The system of claim 10, wherein identifying the potential identifier asnot an actual identifier when the potential identifier matches userdata, when the potential identifier matches group materials, and whenthe potential identifier is associated with the group materialscomprising: identifying a window size for evaluation, wherein the windowsize specifies an amount of data surrounding the potential identifierfor analysis; identifying data within the window; analyzing the datawithin the window; and outputting an indicator of association betweenthe potential identifier and the group materials.
 12. A method forlocation-based anonymization, the method comprising: receiving at aserver a contribution from a user device via a communication network,wherein the contribution comprises content for placement in aconversation thread; determining with the server an anonymization levelfor applying to the contribution, wherein determining the anonymizationlevel comprises: receiving physical location information identifying aphysical location of the user device; and extracting data identifying ananonymization level from an anonymization table based on the physicallocation information, wherein the anonymization level is specific to ageographic location of a plurality of users; and anonymizing with theserver a potential identifier according to the determined anonymizationlevel when a non-match of the potential identifier and class materialsassociated with the conversation thread is determined.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising generating and providing an alert to theuser device, wherein the alert comprises code to direct the user deviceto provide an indicator of receipt of the alert, wherein the indicatorof receipt of the alert comprises one: an aural indicator; a tactileindicator; and a visual indicator.
 14. The method of claim 12, whereinthe contribution comprises contribution data identifying an originatorof the contribution.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprisingdetermining an active location of the originator of the contribution,wherein the active location is based on the physical location of theuser and on a membership of the user.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein extracting data from the anonymization table is based on thephysical location information of the user device and the active locationof the user.
 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising retrievinganonymization rules corresponding to the anonymization level.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the location information is generated bylocation-determining features of the user device.
 19. The method ofclaim 18, wherein the location-determining features comprise a GlobalPositioning System receiver and a Global Positioning System antenna. 20.The method of claim 19, further comprising identifying the potentialidentifier as an actual identifier when the potential identifier matchesuser data and when the potential identifier does not match groupmaterials.